The Rabbit Hole: 4th & Felony

Editor’s Note: As millions gather this evening to watch the Patriots and Seahawks battle for the Lombardi trophy, we saw it as the perfect opportunity to examine the various ways the sports world has intersected with the U.S. justice system. From gambling rings to presidential pardons, reporters Peter Beck and Gigi Liman tell the stories of athletes who excelled on the field of play but performed poorly against federal prosecutors. - Seamus

Tonight, Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte will play in his first Super Bowl. Just a few years ago, the odds of that happening would have seemed unlikely. In 2024, Boutte was charged with creating an online betting account using a fake name and illegally placing more than 8,900 bets across 17 games while he was playing football at Louisiana State University. After he completed a gambling awareness program and agreed to a self-ban, his charges were dropped. According to investigators, Boutte accumulated over $500,000 in winnings, much of which he used to place additional bets. Reflecting on the ordeal in an essay last month, Boutte said his gambling left him broke and “damn near ruined [his] life.” He is not the first professional athlete to find himself entangled in sports betting, and he will almost certainly not be the last. 

Be it players in the 1919 World Series or Pete Rose’s stubborn belief in the Cincinnati Reds, where sports go, the gambling money follows. In the past few years, the league where that’s rung the most true has been the NBA. In 2014, the association’s commissioner, Adam Silver, made history as the first head of a major U.S.-based league to come out in support of decriminalizing sports gambling. Then, in 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 1992 federal law that banned states from legalizing sports betting. In the seven years since, sports betting has become a near-ubiquitous feature of the NBA. Federal investigations into illegal gambling have implicated various league figures, ranging from an all-star’s bench warmer brother to a hall of fame champion turned head coach.

The first major case of NBA gambling after betting was legalized unfolded in early 2024. On January 26, Jontay Porter, a little-known 24-year-old center on the Toronto Raptors who had spent most of his career in the G League, sent a text before a game against the Lakers: “I’m going to play first 2-3 minute stint off the bench then when I get subbed out tell them my eye killing me again.” The messages served as a signal. According to court documents, Porter planned to unexpectedly take himself out of the game early, allowing co-conspirators to make a player prop bet, a wager tied to an individual’s performance. Two months later, the same pattern played out again: unusually large bets were placed on him underperforming, and he unexpectedly left the game early. 

Federal investigators quickly identified Porter and his five co-conspirators. Porter became the first active coach or player expelled from the league since 1954. He was federally charged in June 2024 and pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in July. Co-conspirator Timothy McCormick, who profited roughly $150,000 from the scheme, was sentenced in January 2026 to two years in prison. No other defendants have been sentenced. 

Initially, it appeared as though this was an isolated incident motivated by a struggling player looking to make a quick buck. That assumption was quelled in 2025 when NBA Hall of Famer and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncy Billups, Miami Heat star player “Scary” Terry Rozier, and former player Damon Jones were among 34 individuals charged in two separate illegal gambling schemes involving NBA personnel. The defendants also include a co-conspirator from Porter’s case.

The first indictment, dubbed “Nothing but Bet,” mirrored Porter’s playbook. According to court records, Rozer, Jones, and other “insiders” passed along undisclosed tips about games to co-conspirators, who then sold those tips to gamblers who would successfully bet on games, all of them earning a profit along the way. Prosecutors allege that prior to a February 2023 Lakers v. Milwaukee Bucks game, Jones, who was acting as an unofficial assistant Lakers coach, texted a co-conspirator: “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! [Lebron James] is out tonight.” That James would not play was not yet public. Because of this information, co-conspirators were able to bet accordingly. James didn’t play, and the Bucks won. 

The indictment alleges that in February 2023, Rozier, who played as a starting guard for the Hornets, told a co-conspirator that he was going to exit the game early due to an injury and not return. Co-conspirators bet and sold this information to others, in total making hundreds of thousands of dollars. On that day, Rozier played just nine minutes and 34 seconds, well below his season average of approximately 35.3 minutes per game. 

Billups, Jones, and the 29 others charged in the second indictment, “Operation Royal Flush,” are alleged to have taken part in an elaborate Mafia-organized scheme in which individuals were lured to participate in rigged poker games with the promise to play alongside the NBA giants who were fittingly assigned the role of “Face Card” in the operation. The scheme is alleged to have defrauded victims out of over $7,000,000 over six years, according to the indictment. 

According to ESPN, at least one other NBA player—Malik Beasley—remains under federal investigation for illegal sports gambling. Two of the men named in the 2025 “Nothing but Bet” indictment, Marves Fairley and Shane Hennen (who was also charged with illegally betting on Porter’s performance), were among 26 charged last month in a sprawling scheme to fix Chinese Basketball Association and NCAA basketball games. 

And while athletes can be defendants, they can also be victims of crime.